“The Wynne government is cutting public sector jobs and giving the work to private contractors,” OPSEU President Warren Thomas said in a news release. “Privatizing court transcription services is just one of hundreds of examples. Repeatedly, the result is poorer service at higher cost.”

OPSEU members include front-line provincial employees working within ministries. Their collective agreement expired Dec. 31, 2014.

Ron Elliot, OPSEU’s vice-president of southwestern Ontario, said in the news release that the Auditor General has found civil servants can deliver quality at a lower cost than private contractors.

“Wynne’s mantra is wage freezes, cutbacks and concessions,” Thomas said in the release. “It appears that government negotiators at the bargaining table would rather force a civil service strike than negotiate a fair deal.”

Find Windsor Star on Facebook]]>http://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/windsor-public-sector-workers-to-picket-against-kathleen-wynne/feed0Premier Kathleen Wynne talks with OPSEU workers outside the Walkerville Brewery, Friday, June 19, 2015. (DAX MELMER/The Windsor Star)carolynethompsonOntario’s sports minister visits Windsor to re-announce $2.5M FINA granthttp://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/ontarios-sports-minister-visits-windsor-to-re-announce-2-5m-fina-grant
http://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/ontarios-sports-minister-visits-windsor-to-re-announce-2-5m-fina-grant#commentsTue, 16 Jun 2015 01:30:37 +0000http://blogs.windsorstar.com/?p=494855]]>Just in case there were any doubts when the Liberals first announced it in their provincial budget eight weeks ago, Ontario Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport Michael Coteau was in Windsor Monday to re-announce the $2.5 million the city is getting to help host next year’s 25-metre world swimming championships.

The first question Coteau was asked by reporters: Why isn’t Windsor getting the $3 million it had planned to receive from the province.

“Two-and-a-half-million is a pretty good investment,” said Coteau, adding his government only has “a certain amount of money” and that it was a matter of finding “that right balance.”

The Ontario government announced a $2.5 million commitment to the City of Windsor on Monday, June 15, 2015, to help finance the 2016 World Swimming Championships at the Windsor International Aquatic Centre. Michael Coteau, left, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport gets a tour of the facility from Mayor Drew Dilkens. (DAN JANISSE/The Windsor Star)

Mayor Drew Dilkens thanked the minister for the “giant cheque” coming Windsor’s way (the minister said that cheque, to be paid out in two annual instalments, wasn’t actually ready yet). Despite the shortfall, Dilkens said it was “still our goal to work within the budget.”

An administrative report given to city council in February described a “worst-case” scenario in which the six-day event in December 2016 would cost $14.1 million, $3 million more than a previous estimate. The municipality has committed to covering $3 million of the total event budget, but city taxpayers are on the hook for any funding shortfall.

Dilkens told reporters Monday that, “It’s not our intent to call city council for more.”

Dilkens said Windsor is hoping to hear from Ottawa “in short order” on the city’s request for a $4-million federal contribution for the prestigious international event being hosted in Canada for the first time.

“The return on investment will come many times over,” Coteau predicted. He called it a “major accomplishment” for Windsor to have secured such a “fantastic event.”

Beating out such competition as Hong Kong and Abu Dhabi, Windsor — the smallest city in the world to ever host to FINA’s second-biggest global event — will draw an estimated 2,500 visitors, including more than 900 elite swimmers from 175 countries.

“It really does put us on the map … you can’t buy that type of advertising,” said Dilkens, adding the anticipated international sports coverage will also serve as an important “tool” in helping draw future economic development.

“All the current and future Olympians and swim superstars will be here,” said Swimming Canada CEO Ahmed El-Awadi, who was also in Windsor for Monday’s announcement.

Dilkens said every hotel room in the city and county has been booked for the FINA event, which he estimated will have a regional economic impact of about $16 million.

Asked about the wisdom of investing millions or more in tax dollars on single big-ticket sporting events, Coteau said tourism and sports is a $28-billion/year sector in Ontario and employs 350,000 people.

“We see it as a great investment,” the minister said.

Ontario taxpayers will be covering the biggest chunk of the $2.5-billion-plus cost of the 2015 Pan American Games being hosted by Toronto next month.

The budget for next year’s FINA championships in Windsor does not include the additional $7.3 million city council approved last month to create a new East Windsor swimming pool. It will be attached to the WFCU Centre for use as a training pool during FINA and then later as a community pool.

Project manager Don Sadler said there will be a shovel in the ground on that project by next month, with construction completion scheduled for August 2016.

The main FINA events in December 2016 will be in a temporary pool built in the main WFCU Arena bowl.

Find Windsor Star on Facebook]]>http://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/ontarios-sports-minister-visits-windsor-to-re-announce-2-5m-fina-grant/feed0The Ontario government announced a $2.5 million commitment to the City of Windsor on Monday, June 15, 2015, to help finance the 2016 World Swimming Championships at the Windsor International Aquatic Centre. Michael Coteau, Ontario Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport speaks to reporters during the event. (DAN JANISSE/The Windsor Star)winstarschmidtThe Ontario government announced a $2.5 million commitment to the City of Windsor on Monday, June 15, 2015, to help finance the 2016 World Swimming Championships at the Windsor International Aquatic Centre. Michael Coteau, (L) Ontario Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport gets a tour of the facility from Mayor Drew Dilkens. (DAN JANISSE/The Windsor Star)Kathleen Wynne joins Ontario Liberals for Windsor weekendhttp://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/kathleen-wynne-joins-ontario-liberals-for-windsor-weekend
http://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/kathleen-wynne-joins-ontario-liberals-for-windsor-weekend#commentsFri, 17 Oct 2014 20:13:36 +0000http://blogs.windsorstar.com/?p=394204]]>Windsor is hosting the first official gathering of Ontario Liberals since Premiere Kathleen Wynne swept the party to a majority government in last June’s election.

Highlighting the weekend will be Wynne’s speech to more than 500 of the party faithful at a Saturday luncheon at Caesars Windsor.

The annual gathering of the provincial council, which brings together representatives from all 103 ridings, normally attracts 200 or so.

“This could be a record number of people,” said Greg Crone, vice-president of communications for the Ontario Liberals. “Since we won the election, there’s a lot of excitement and there’s many more people coming that we normally anticipate. This (size and scope) is more akin to our annual general meeting.”

Brian Payne, president of the Essex riding association and Walter Benzinger, president of the Windsor-Tecumseh riding association, will also be on hand.

Many of Ontario’s MPPs will be in town.

“It’s the first time the party has gotten together in a formal session since June,” Payne said. “It’s great because it does show Kathleen Wynne said she wouldn’t forget about Windsor and we’ve really pushed for that.”

Delegates will discuss fundraising, campaign assessments and strategic planning over the course of the weekend.

Monday it’s back to business as the Legislative Assembly of Ontario ends its summer adjournment.

A U.S. wind power developer that is seeking $653-million in damages under a NAFTA challenge accuses the government of Ontario of manipulating Green Energy Act rules to benefit the interests of Liberal-connected firms, according to court documents obtained by the National Post.

The court filing, recently made public in the case that pits Mesa Power, a Texas-based developer owned by U.S. financier T. Boone Pickens, against the government, alleges Ontario replaced “transparent” criteria for the selection of energy projects with “political favoritism, cronyism and local preference.”

At issue in the NAFTA arbitration are changes made to the Green Energy Act in 2011. They allowed wind developers a brief window in which they could change the location at which their proposed projects would connect to the transmission grid. NextEra, a multinational renewables firm that was represented to the government by lobbyist Bob Lopinksi, a former senior staffer in the office of Dalton McGuinty, changed their connection points and was eventually awarded more than $2-billion worth of power contracts. Mesa Power says in its court filing that the change effectively bumped its projects out of line, costing it sunk costs and lost future profits.

“The rules were changed to suit one applicant to the detriment of another,” the court document claims.

“The rules change was also specifically designed with NextEra in mind,” says the 243-page NAFTA document called the Memorial of the Investor. It was filed last year but released publicly last month. “On a number of occasions,” the document says, “the Minister of Energy’s Office took explicit steps to ensure the process was being executed to the benefit of NextEra.”

“NextEra also gained assistance through the Ontario Premier’s office,” the filing alleges. “The Premier’s office injected itself into the (Feed-in-Tariff) program, and began expressing its political preferences for matters that where entirely within the regulatory realm of the 9Ontario Power Authority).

The Mesa Power document also claims that NextEra “had direct access to the Premier’s Office.” It says that NextEra met with former McGuinty aides Jamison Steeve and Sean Mullin in October, 2010. Both men would later be involved in the negotiations surrounding the cancellation of gas-plants in the greater Toronto area and the payments to the affected firms.

Opposition critics of the Green Energy Act have long contended that the governing Liberals used explosive growth in renewable energy since 2009 to steer contracts toward favoured firms and Liberal insiders. Various companies have also taken the government to court over the frequent changes to the Feed-in-Tariff program, but the government has maintained that it is allowed to make policy changes even if they negatively impact green-energy investors. Ontario also lost a WTO ruling that found the “domestic content” requirements in the Green Energy Act discriminated against foreign-owned firms and were a violation of trade agreements.

“The treatment of Mesa in this case,” the court filing says, “is just another episode in a saga of maladministration, scandal, political interference, manipulation and contempt for the rule of law that dominated Ontario until the resignation of the Premier [McGuinty] early in 2013.”

Ontario, which is represented at the NAFTA tribunal by the government of Canada, says in its filing that “there is no evidence to support the claimant’s allegations.”

“In managing and implementing procurement processes, decision-makers are often forced to make adjustments at key junctures … to best satisfy the policy objectives of government,” the government filing says. “Such adjustments often result in winners and losers … as changes operate to the benefit of some and detriment of others.”

The government response dismisses claims of “wrong-doing” and says the changes that impacted Mesa Power were “nothing more than a commercial consequence of legitimate policy choices.”

But local critics complain it won’t go far and is likely merely designed to appeal to voters in a possible spring election.

As part of its first Cycling Action Plan, the Ontario Ministry of Transportation announced Monday it’s proposing to invest $10 million to “help municipalities expand their local cycling routes and support connections for a future provincial cycling network.” The department also announced an additional $15 million to build “cycling infrastructure” on provincial highways and bridges.

But critics of the initiative are quick to point out that the new municipal funds would be distributed over a three-year period, and, were they to be shared equally among Ontario’s 444 municipalities, would amount to a mere $7,500 per municipality per year.

“For $7,500, we could get some bike racks, probably paint some bike path lines through an intersection,” said city engineer Mario Sonego.

In comparison, Windsor recently approved spending 200 times that amount this year alone — $5 million — on local cycling infrastructure, primarily on 12.4 kilometres of new paths to complete the 42.5-kilometre Windsor Loop, a bike path circling the city, as well as for an additional 18 kilometres of connector paths.

“It’s not a lot of money,” Mayor Eddie Francis said of the provincial commitment, adding Windsor’s latest bike spending “kind of puts that figure in perspective.”

Asked to comment on the relatively small proposed sum to develop cycling infrastructure across the province, MPP and cabinet minister Teresa Piruzza (L–Windsor West) told The Star the expectation is that municipalities would use the province’s largesse to “leverage” their own spending on cycling infrastructure.

While it might not sound like much at first, on a per-municipality basis, Sonego said Windsor is “always willing to pursue additional levels of funding.”

And Piruzza sounded like she might be willing to grease the wheels.

“As (Windsor’s) local MPP, I absolutely, always support infrastructure investments in our community,” she said.

Earlier this month, Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives released leaked documents they said show the Liberals were planning a month-long spending spree before an anticipated budget in May that would see spending increased by nearly $6 billion. The government documents purport to reveal a “budget leaking team” in which the Liberals planned to divulge dozens of spending initiatives in the run-up to presenting the new budget.

University of Windsor political scientist Lydia Miljan is cautioning Windsor cyclists not to get too excited about the potential for new provincial cycling dollars anytime soon.

“I think it’s more likely we’ll see an election before we see the next budget passed,” she said. Describing Monday’s cycling announcement as a “boutique issue” of the Liberals designed as “a pre-election thought they hope will count at the polls,” Miljan said the amount being put towards it “is just so low it doesn’t really count.”

But that doesn’t mean Miljan is arguing for even more money added to that effort.

“There are other noble things they can spend our money on — the bigger question is, how are they going to get the economy rolling again?” she said.

While Miljan sees the province’s new cycling investment as “purely symbolic,” Ward 9 Coun. Hilary Payne, while agreeing it’s a small amount and probably part of the Liberals’ “grab bag of election goodies,” said it’s a step in the right direction.

Sonego said it points to a transformation underway in Windsor and Ontario as a whole, with cycling shedding its former reputation as “more of a nuisance” towards a newer recognition as a legitimate mode of transportation.

“Cycling’s getting more popular … there’s been a revolution — rightly so,” said Sonego.

Payne is hoping to get council support to take that revolution further. The city recently held an open house on whether to add bike lanes along a widened Cabana Road or build an adjoining multi-use trail to be shared by cyclists and other non-motorized users.

But Payne said he’ll be pushing for a third option — a separate bike lane, physically segregated from other users using “bumper blocks” similar to those used in Ottawa and elsewhere.

“I think there’s going to be quite a debate on this at council,” said Payne, adding he’ll be attending the city’s next bicycling committee meeting on Wednesday to help drum up support for segregated cycling in Windsor.

Find Windsor Star on Facebook]]>http://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/provinces-offer-of-cycling-funds-decried-as-small-election-goodie/feed0An unidentified cyclist watches over his shoulder while peddling south on Ouellette Avenue November 27, 2013. An improvement in bike lanes and trails was mentioned by Mayor Eddie Francis during the State of the City speech November 27, 2013. (NICK BRANCACCIO/The Windsor Star)winstarschmidtHenderson: Give these guys the boothttp://blogs.windsorstar.com/opinion/henderson-give-these-guys-the-boot
http://blogs.windsorstar.com/opinion/henderson-give-these-guys-the-boot#commentsFri, 01 Nov 2013 22:23:38 +0000http://blogs.windsorstar.com/?p=265718]]>The steer that generously provided the leather for my work boots has been dead over half a century so I guess you could call them heirloom footwear.

I keep those steel-toed boots around to periodically remind my Calvinist guilt-ridden self of what a jackass I was at the age of 17 when, courtesy of procrastination and indolence, I wrecked a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to spend a summer in northern Ontario as a Junior Ranger.

Windsor Star columnist Gord Henderson is pictured in this file photo.

Those boots were supposed to spend eight adventurous weeks in the bush. Instead they lingered on a bedroom shelf while I dozed in a stifling summer school classroom.

I take those regret-laced old-timers out for a stroll once in a while. They stomped through the WFCU Centre construction site and collected grit and mud at the downtown aquatic centre.

What I’d really like to do with them is send a size-12 message to the clowns “managing” the most incompetent, self-serving provincial government since the Second World War.

It boggles the mind how the McGunity/Wynne regime has burned through billions in recent years, bounding from one obscene scandal to the next while bleeding red ink.

You know the whole outrageous tale. The $1.1-billion squandered on killing power plants in Mississauga and Oakville to win over a handful of ridings. The hundreds of millions of dollars (and who knows how many lives?) lost in the Ornge air ambulance debacle. The billion or more dumped into the eHealth medical records fiasco.

Just now gaining traction is another scandal, exposed by the Toronto Star, over billions of slot machine dollars, meant to support the horse racing industry, that were either mis-spent or have gone missing because of lax to non-existent oversight.

These tales, of course, eclipse all others. That’s a shame because some of the smaller stories, like the government’s mean and shortsighted decision to snuff out the Ontario Ranger program last year, speak volumes.

Talk about putting boots to the little person. Talk about counting pennies while thousand-dollar bills sail out the window.

In a bid to save $1.8 million, which isn’t even beer money for a government accustomed to frittering away billions, they killed a program that had been doing solid environmental work since 1944 while introducing 78,000 young people to concepts like hard work, teamwork, comradeship and respect for nature.

To put it in context, this is a government that didn’t blink at paying for coffees and muffins of $2,500-a-day consultants. It apparently had no problem with Ornge executives swanning about Europe on MBA boondoggles costing $600,000.

But a bunch of 17-year-olds eager to spend their summers cleaning campsites and latrines and restoring overgrown portage trails while being eaten alive by deerflies? Well hey, they don’t even vote at that age. For a bully government, those are soft pickings.

This province is still mostly wilderness. Boreal forest, to be exact. And yet most of us huddle down here at the extreme southern edge, totally unaware of the majesty of the 87 per cent we call northern Ontario.

Here was a program ingeniously designed — during wartime no less — to break through that barrier of ignorance, drawing youngsters from across the province to remote sites where they would learn to work as a group and, in most cases, fall in love with the outdoors and their province.

It’s remarkable what those eight weeks can achieve. I remember dropping my son off at Kiosk on Algonquin Park’s northern boundary in the mid 1990s. Thirty or so 17-year-old strangers eyed each other silently, uncertainly, as parents departed.

Two months later, having earned the princely sum of $1,000, they rolled into Toronto’s Union Station. Tanned, fly-bitten, immensely stronger, they beamed with confidence while exchanging hugs and high-fives. Callow youths had been transformed into hopeful young men.

But this was no taxpayer-funded summer camp. Those teens spent a big chunk of those eight weeks out in the bush, sleeping in tents, cooking their own meals and using saws and scythes to reclaim campsites and portage trails along the Nipissing River.

Who does that work now? Is anyone doing it? If they are, where are the savings? And if they aren’t, well God help future canoe trippers.

Graduates of the Ranger program include David Crombie, the former tiny perfect mayor of Toronto and Olivia Chow, a Toronto New Democratic MP, widow of former NDP leader Jack Layton and possible future Toronto mayor.

Check out Chow’s online testimonial about her time in the program. She describes how, as a young immigrant in downtown Toronto, she had never seen stars, let alone a forest, before joining the Rangers. It gave her a sense of belonging, of responsibility and enhanced her ability to get along with others.

The provincial NDP, with Conservative support, is pushing for the program’s reinstatement.

Common sense says it should be restored.

It also says that the Liberals should be given the boot. Thankfully, I have a pair to spare. No charge.

]]>http://blogs.windsorstar.com/opinion/henderson-give-these-guys-the-boot/feed0Outgoing Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty (right) and incoming premier Kathleen Wynne pose for media after a meeting at the Queen's Park in Toronto on Monday, January 28, 2013. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris YoungwinstarhendersonWindsor Star columnist Gord Henderson is pictured in this file photo.An able premier, if she can hang onhttp://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/an-able-premier-if-she-can-hang-on
http://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/an-able-premier-if-she-can-hang-on#commentsSun, 27 Jan 2013 22:00:10 +0000http://blogs.windsorstar.com/?p=125934]]>It would have been an honour to have a premier from Windsor.

Certainly former longtime Windsor West MPP Sandra Pupatello brought us an historic campaign. Five of the seven original candidates vying to become the new leader of the Liberal Party of Ontario were men, but it was the two women who led from the beginning. As Pupatello said in a gracious speech after the final ballot Saturday, “From the beginning, we had the boys on the run.”

But with Kathleen Wynne, the Liberals have chosen a premier, not an opposition leader.

There’s a lot to like – and respect – about the MPP from Don Valley West, the first female premier in Ontario and the first openly gay premier in Canada. A cabinet minister who served in four different portfolios, she has depth; she’s said to know policy, from education to health care to transportation, inside and out. She’s a former mediator, which makes her someone who listens, is reasoned, is a team player and solves problems; we’ll need all that in a minority government.

She was criticized as not “electable” (confession: I agreed with that), not tough enough, too boring. But she beat Pupatello, who had been all but crowned, the choice of the party establishment, endorsed by two major newspapers in Toronto. Maybe we should have paid more attention to the 2007 election. Then-Progressive Conservative leader John Tory ran in Wynne’s riding. She clobbered him, winning by 5,000 votes.

And this is gutsy: In her speech to delegates Saturday, she went right to the point: “Is Ontario ready for a gay premier?” she asked. “You’ve heard that question. Let’s say what that actually means. Can a gay woman win?

“I don’t believe the people of Ontario judge their leaders on the basis of race, colour or sexual orientation … they judge us on our merits,” she said.

This is a woman who had three small children when she came out. She went on to raise them with her ex-husband and partner and is now a grandmother. That says a lot.

Just before the 59-year-old Wynne arrived on the stage, a group of supporters, including Health Minister Deb Matthews, came out wearing T-shirts saying “Wynne Now” and started dancing to Raise Your Glass, Pink’s ode to underdogs. “Which team has sizzle?” Wynne asked cheekily.

Wynne was also criticized for not talking enough about the economy. But she has said there is more to attracting jobs than incentives. Education is the most important service a government provides, she said during a media conference Sunday. Investment in infrastructure and public transit are also important to the economy, she said. She approaches issues from a broader perspective.

Because she’s left of centre, there was concern she’d give in to public sector demands. But she reiterated Sunday, “I’m very clear we’re not going to rip up the contracts,” referring to the labour contract the government imposed on teachers.

But that’s not what people remember now. Now, they remember the millions wasted by the air ambulance service Ornge and cancellation of two power plants, the $11.9-billion deficit (to be fair, partly due to the recession), the dispute with the teachers that has cost class time and extra-curricular activities and Dalton McGuinty’s sudden resignation and proroguing the legislature. Not a classy denouement.

As Wynne said of her victory Saturday, “Believe it or not, this was the easy part.”

Right now, the only thing that has changed is the leader. As the thousands of protesting teachers and union supporters outside the leadership convention attested, Wynne still faces very difficult, some would say intractable, issues. She will need not just a new cabinet but a fresh one with novel ideas. She will need a new, fresh plan of investing in the future, in the economy, education, training and health care, while paying down the deficit. And she will need to resolve the dispute with the teachers or it will divide the legislature, suck all the attention and block the way forward.

Above all, Wynne must make minority government work.

“Ontarians don’t want an election,” she said rightly Sunday. “They want us to lead.”

And frankly, while the next election, whenever it is, will be quite the showdown between the right and the left, no party is in a position to win a majority government, setting up the possibility of several years of campaigns and elections while the work of government is left undone.

The legislature will be recalled Feb. 19. Wynne has already had a “good opening conversation” with Tory leader Tim Hudak, she said Sunday, resisting the urge to attack him.

If she can hang on to government, I think she could make an able premier.

“I’m thinking we have a chance,” she said Sunday. “I believe there are ways of finding common ground, bringing people together, having a different kind of discussion.”

Where does all this leave Windsor? It won’t be the same as having Premier Pupatello or Finance Minister Dwight Duncan or two senior cabinet ministers. But we’ve had numerous cabinet ministers and members of the governing party over the last several decades. I don’t believe Ontario will suddenly end at London again. Rookie Windsor West MPP Theresa Piruzza is no-nonsense and competent, and people are impressed with her.

Wynne won the leadership despite criticism she is from Toronto. She was characteristically direct when she addressed that in her speech.

“Can we get this Toronto thing out of the way?,” she said. “I am going to be the premier for the whole province. All of Ontario!”

]]>http://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/an-able-premier-if-she-can-hang-on/feed0Incoming Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne speaks at her first formal press conference in Toronto on Sunday, January 27, 2013. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette)winstarjarvis